What is a LEED building?
Since it’s founding in 1991, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has emerged as the recognized national professional organization for people involved in green building. To help the construction industry define green building, the USGBC developed a method of scoring buildings to evaluate their “green-ness.” LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is their green building rating system, which defines a voluntary guideline for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. LEED has become the industry standard for commercial green building in the United States. (For single and multifamily residences, we use the Build It Green GreenPoint Rated system.) Today, LEED buildings can be found in 12 countries and all 50 states. There are currently over 20,000 LEED Accredited Professionals trained in this rating system and nearly 2,000 buildings on their way to certification. The LEED system works by dividing the building into five categories: Sustainable Sites, Water Conserva
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an independent ranking system for environmentally sustainable construction established by the US Green Building Council. The State of California requires Silver LEED certification on all new state construction. The community and state university systems have adopted similar requirements, as have some cities. From the earliest stages of design development, the former City Manager and Council requested that the City Offices be environmentally sustainable and energy efficient. A community design team met regularly with the architects for a year. As a result of their input, the grounds were designed to create a community meeting place integrated into the natural environment, and to encourage through foot traffic to Orinda Way. The building will be built into the hillside to blend with the natural surroundings. A covered outdoor atrium will serve as the lobby for the building, saving on hard construction costs and also further integrat
Since it’s founding in 1991, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has emerged as a recognized and respected leader among green professionals. To help the construction industry define green building, the USGBC discovered a need for a method of scoring buildings to evaluate their “green-ness.” LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is their green building rating system, which defines a voluntary guideline for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. LEED has quickly become the industry standard for green building in the United States. Today, LEED buildings can be found in 12 countries and all 50 states. There are currently over 20,000 LEED Accredited Professionals trained in this rating system and nearly 2,000 buildings on their way to certification. This represents about 8 percent of the U.S. new construction market, and this number is growing quickly. Still in it’s early stages, some have found LEED to be confusing and difficult to implement. While LEED list
